Educator Spotlight – Meet Chris Custalow!

30 November, 2023

“Osiyo, I have spent my life living across the country from the midwest, Alaska, and the commonwealth absorbing indigenous knowledge during my travels. It has always been a passion of mine to embrace my culture and bring it to the forefront of everything I do. I have shared my knowledge with people from all over the world in panel discussions, stage performances, and teaching classes. I focus my efforts in educating both native and non-native communities to address the lack of education being driven by our own perspectives and with our own voices. This has been and always will be a passion of mine to educate our future community members and leaders.”

“I am honored to have been involved in bringing computer science to this year’s Virginia Tribal Education Consortium (VTEC) hosts: the Chickahominy and Upper Mattaponi Tribes. Our two CodeVA classes (CTE and Critter Code) with the respective Tribal Nations have brought computer science to the attention of many tribal citizens and the tribal leadership. Having access to these resources and skills is very important for our community’s workforce, students, and families of the next seven generations.”

“Bringing CS into everything we do as indigenous communities, even our historic culturally significant ways, such as food, will be required in the future.”

“Computer science is part of everyday life in the world we live in now, so bringing CS into everything we do as indigenous communities, even our historic culturally significant ways, such as food, will be required in the future. We are currently working on a partnership to introduce a Farm Bot into one of Virginia’s native food sovereignty programs. This would allow the living classroom to be a place to get your hands in the soil and learn about wellness through food, while also learning about computer science and its contributions to these spaces. So, stay tuned as we implement these programs and get Tribal Nations ready for the future!”

– Chris Custalow, Tribal Community Program Coordinator, Eureka Workshop/CodeVA